Locked On Penguins - Daily Podcast On The Pittsburgh Penguins - We have now found the worst loss of the season

Episode Date: March 5, 2021

After their best performance of the season, the Penguins go ahead and do...that. Yes, that means it's their worst performance, bar none. Hunter goes into all of it and even calls back the old Michel Therrien rant which is 100% valid for this team. What needs to happen to the Matheson-Marino pairing? Should Matheson just play forward now anyway? He also gets into more of the defensive zone coverage as no one on the roster has a clue on how to defend the net-front. He then touches on more special teams struggles and even talks about Mike Sullivan as it may look like he's losing the team a bit. When is he going to off on the team and stop saying the same things? FinallySupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.IndeedWant your QUALITY short-list FAST? You need Indeed. RIGHT NOW, our listeners get a FREE SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLAR CREDIT to upgrade your job post at Indeed.com/LockedOn, there's the listener takeaways to end the show and a look into the Penguins next very important game. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Your Locked-on Penguins. Your daily podcast on the Pittsburgh Penguins. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network. Your team every day. Hey, everyone, welcome to this Thursday evening episode of the Locked-on Penguins podcast. I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes. Follow the shows Twitter at L-O-W-N-Score Penguins.

If you guys notice, you know, my mood is definitely not where it usually is, even after any kind of losses. Even the two-nothing deflated loss against the Islanders, I was more happier during that episode. But this one, you know, I honestly have not been this affected by a penguin's loss, I guess, is the best way to say it, since 2015. When they lost that series against the Rangers, 2016 and 2017 were obviously great.

2018, they get a pass because, you know, they were gassed against the campbells. 2019, that kind of stunk against the Islanders. But, okay, you know, you make some changes, move on. 2020, a bit annoying, but also during a pandemic year. But now, after this 56-game season, you're playing all your division teams. This one is probably one of the worst losses. Honestly, since 2015, they had this game. You were up 3-0.

You played a great five minutes. Even after this game, you know, I pulled up that Michelle Tarian video of his rant. I think it was during, what, the 2006 season or something like that, where he just went on a full-on rant about the team. And, you know, this quote stung out to me, you know, am I going to be happy with eight minutes? No, I'm not going to be happy playing eight minutes. You know, I always think their job is to be the worst defensive squad in the lead.

Those two quotes right there. And honestly, that just summed up the Penguins night tonight. They played five minutes or eight minutes, as Michelle Tarian said. And they lost. They quit. They basically quit on themselves tonight. Their defensive performance was absolutely pathetic. We're going to get more into that coming up.

But just an absolute deflating, embarrassing, pathetic performance by the Pittsburgh Penguins tonight. A game that they had to have, standings-wise, playoff-wise, so many playoff implications. There were less than three minutes left. Even when the Flyers tied it, I kept saying, you got to get at least a point out of this. You got to get to overtime because with the Penguins, they could have sold in overtime just because of how they played at three-on-three. It's almost like in a video game where you kind of land somewhere with someone else in like a battle royale, 50-50, and the Penguins win that 50-50 every time, which is three-on-three almost. And the Penguins have been doing that all season.

They had just been killing the opposition or just, you know, getting the... the gun in a battle royale and just killing the other guy almost every time so i was hoping that was going to happen again nope the defensive performance was pathetic with two minutes to go and it uh it it it cost them and you know i'm really also getting sick and tired of sorry about the discord notification i'm just going to quit out of that right now i'm really getting sick and tired of mike solvin have the same garbage answers game after game after game after game after game you know We didn't play hard enough. We didn't play fast enough.

We'll go back and make adjustments or, you know, it's just, you know, basically, I don't think we're good enough in front of the net. I don't think we spend enough time in the offensive zone to get to the net front. It's like, wow, Mike, it's basically been that way the whole entire season. And you keep saying this after every bad loss, you know, obviously tonight was the pinnacle of that. And nothing changes. You had a great performance the other night when your team took it to the flyers without

Sidney Crosby. And yet he came back to this game. You know, you rallied around in the first five minutes. Hell yeah, looks like it's going to be a blowout, maybe a 6-0-0 game like we saw in game one of 2018 against this team. And then, you know, maybe it looks like they're going to pull Brian Elliott, the Flyers take that time out. And then after that, the penguin stopped playing. And it's like, you know, you're the coach of this team. You have to get your players, you know, in the best position to succeed.

You've got to get your players up for these games. And, you know, if you're not going to be the one to do this, you know, someone's going to show you the door. You know, I'm getting closer and closer to the ledge. of potentially making a coaching change. And I love Mike Sullivan. You know, I've defended him so often to my friends, you know, people that I know that cover the team, just other podcasts that I go on, etc.

He's a top five coach in this league. He will be picked up by another team when he inevitably leaves the Penguins. He's not going to coach here forever, obviously. But, you know, he'll be picked up within 30 minutes. But, you know, there comes a point in time where something gets stale. And I think we're on our way to that right now. You know, just with what's happened the last two post seasons, the way the team has flamed out, what's going on this year,

a game that they had to have. Now, you were about to take a two-point leading the standings. There were, what, six and a half minutes, seven minutes to go. You just got to get through that. You're so close. Obviously, the Flyers got a lucky break there with the Scott Lawton rule. But, I mean, and then after that, you've got to get at least a point, get it to three-on-three where your team has been so good,

and your team just stopped scanning, and they just can't even defend the net front. it's just I don't get it people are going to point to the fact that you know well the power play gave the game away after they went through nothing and you know I think that's a bit that's a bit not fair you know obviously the Penguins power play is a real problem

right now you would have loved them to score in that situation after Nolan Patrick made himself look like an idiot tonight with the stuff from Mark Friedman but I mean there's still what 50 minutes of game to play you have time to win the game if you get the fourth goal I think like Sid said after the game

the game is probably over. The big one that I even tweeted about it, excuse me, sorry, during the game, if Gennie Malkin had that chance right in front of the net, probably 15, 10 feet out, Elliot makes a great glove save. He scores on that, makes it 4-2, about halfway through the third.

That game is over. The Flyers most likely do not tie that game, and I will die on that hill. So it's missed chances like that, but they also really weren't getting any good scoring opportunities after those first five minutes. I mean, you can honestly, count them on one hand.

You know, that Gino Chance, the one Gensel one from the slot, the Crosby wrap-around. And I think that's basically it. It was a total turb-fest, shit-fest, garbage, whatever you want to call it. For those last 50 minutes, it's just pathetic. I'm honestly just running out of things to say. It was a deflating loss. You know, now you're two points behind the Flyers. They're three-and-one against you on the season.

They also have two games in hand on you. and, you know, it sets up this Saturday as a must win for the Penguins this, for this game, especially in regulation. I know they have the Rangers coming up in home. That's obviously huge, but it's just they have to win that game. You have to take two points there. If you can get back and tie them in the standings, your schedule gets easier. But, you know, I feel like I just keep saying the same thing for the last week or two or whatever.

And then I feel like, you know, once they play Buffalo, who's been terrible against every team this season, the penguins are just going to give away games. I mean, they shouldn't be just because Buffalo is so terrible, but that's where it could be at some point. And it's just, it's really annoying seeing the defensive effort from this scene. I guess I'll just go in a little bit before the commercial break. You have to send this Mike Matheson, John Marino pairing, to the sun, to the moon, to Pluto, to Mars,

to somewhere down where the Titanic sinks. it is a terrible and I mean a terrible pairing I don't know what Mike Sullivan sees in it it's just it's awful Mike Matheson is a tire fire

in his own end it was that third I think it was the third goal when Jari cleared the puck to Matheson and he couldn't even get the puck out gives it basically right to Jeru goes off line and it's like Matheson you have to make a play there man

that's just embarrassing and then on the fourth goal the penguins are so bad at defending their net front What pairing is on the ice? The Matheson-Marino pairing, just because it's our starting to look like a little bit like the Johnson-Schultz pairing last season. And I'm sorry for saying that, but I have to be objective. That's true. John Marino, I don't think enough of Penguin fans are talking about just how bad he's been this year.

You know, the offensive production is certainly not there. That was the one big thing that I was really hoping that we would see from him this season. And that has tanked. His possession has tanked. His expected goals four have tanked, and his defensive effort has also tanked him. He just looks lost every single time he's on the ice, especially defending his net. He's making plays that are so much worse than he was from last season. It's just like, what happened to last season, Jean Marino?

I really don't understand it. I mean, maybe if you get him away from Matheson, you put Pedersen with him, that's going to help him. I think so. But Mike Matheson is just, you know, he had that nice week, but these last couple, couple games, it just has not been there for him. And, you know, he just, as King Clark, he says, he's playing Michael Ford. And I think that basically is his natural position at this point. That pairing stinks, but also the Penguins, they just, they have never defended their

net front of that all this season. It has been a season-wide issue. Excuse me, I know, I know I keep stuttering. I apologize for that. The penalty kill again was atrocious tonight. After the Penguins went up three-nothing, the Flyers got that power play, took their penalty killers to school. I was on Chad's podcast today with Jesse Marshall,

and we just kept talking about the PK, and it's very passive. Again, they didn't get any sticks in the passing lanes. They're basically letting the flyers do whatever they want. Tanaf has an easy clear there, doesn't get it out, and then Sean Gertruget just rivals it past Tristan Dari. And speaking of Tristan Dari, I feel terrible for him for this game.

He played his ass off. He has played his ass off for nine straight games. He was making some 10 bell saves. The one save that he had, which was truly remarkable, he stacked his pads, and I think the flyer still scored a couple seconds later. That was the Couturier one. It's just like, you have to help your goalie out at least in some capacity, for God's sakes. It was just, I felt really bad watching him back there. He was making way too many saves that he didn't need to make just because of the Penguins' defensive effort.

But yeah, I think that basically just sums up a little bit about the game. Obviously, we have a lot more to get to. Do the listener takeaways, of course. You know, talk about some other parts about this game. Before we do that, it is time to talk about betonline.ag. It's the fastest and easiest way to bet on all your sports action. Football might be over, but the NBA, college basketball, and the NHEL are in full swing. Better Online even covers awards, TV shows, and reality TV.

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I'm your host, Hunter Hodes. Follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hodes, follow this show's Twitter at L.O. underscore Penguins. So, I think another problem with this team, they have a lot of players in their lineup right now that should just not be in their lineup. And a lot of that does go to Jim Rutherford because I don't think there's, is a better way to say this. I'm sorry, excuse me for the language, he fucked this team on his way out. I apologize for saying that. I don't usually say that on this podcast. I said it way back, but, you know, that is exactly what he did. He just said, you know what? See ya. I'm

done with this bitch, and he just left town. And especially after all the moves he made, sacrificed so many picks and all that, just basically winging it. You know, a lot, he's just, the construction of this team is his doing. I mean, March and County, should be a first line center in the HL right now. You have Colton Severe who just doesn't really do anything. You have Sam Lafferty who skates hard and that's

it. Anthony Angelo who also does nothing, maybe escapes hard, doesn't even contribute to anything offensively and defensively. Mike Matheson's playing the wrong position. I didn't even have a problem with trading Patrick Hornquist at the time, but I mean Mike Matheson should not be the player that you

acquire in a trade for Patrick Hornquist who, oh yeah, he wants. He's lighting up with the Panthers this year. I'm pretty sure he's almost averaging like a point per game at this point for them. He's been that good. Mark Friedman was great tonight. He's been a great waiver claim. I guess that's an only good positive, though.

He was also knocked out of the game because, of course, the Penguin's injury curse has to live on. I think he's expected goals for percentages these past couple of games is almost, I think it's like 80, 84%. I don't think it changed this game. And he had an awesome goal to make it two nothing. And then, you know, I guess for more positives, great to see Jared McCann get his. fourth goal of the season. I saw, you know, Josh Yoey is my guy. You know, I've had him on the Blocked on Penguins podcast numerous times. Wonderful human being, one of the best people, honestly, that I've talked to for this and just for hockey stuff. I do disagree with him in his,

the athletic article when he talked about that, you know, they should just move on from McCann, you know, what kind of player is he and all that. He's been great when he's played this year. You know, he leaves the team in points per 60. I think CK404 response code had this great tweet from this morning that looked, excuse me, I'm just trying to find their tweet, at how good McCann has been this year. You know, like I said, the 2.5 points for 60. He has 7.96 shots per 60, third on the team,

1.26 primary assists per 60. And he has a 56.6 expected goals for percentage on this team. That is second overall, and he's also been injured quite a bit this year. And, you know, that's also playing wing for most of the season. he's not even playing his natural position, and he's still putting up those good numbers. I never really understand the Jared McCann –

some of Jared McCann's criticism. He was obviously not good in the second half of last season. He lost his goal-storing touch. But, you know, they gave him a contract extension as approved it. I was fine with it, and he's been good this season. You know, I like how they're using him right now on Malkins wing. I still prefer him at center. But he's not a problem with the team right now.

He's just – he's not. I like – you know, Chris Lattang also got another goal. He's really turned his game around, but it's just – I'm going to keep saying it. This team is not going to go anywhere with so many garbage special teams in such bad defensive play in front of their goaltender. A lot of their issues earlier on in the season have turned around. Even Evgeny Malkin is playing better.

I mean, tonight, you know, maybe not as much. But, you know, in recent games, he's looked a lot better and a little bit more like the Hvgeny Malkin that we've seen from the last couple of seasons. But just the defensive zone coverage, especially in the net front, is atrocious. If you look at the heat maps from Natural Star Trek on almost every game, you know, the Penguins do a great job of keeping these teams, you know,

away from everything except the net front and all those high danger chances. They haven't stopped at all season. I don't expect them to stop it now. That's just how they've been all year. And it's just so frustrating to watch the same things happen over and over and over again. I really, it's just like, it's a cycle, to be honest with you all. I really don't get it. it's something that needs fix,

but do I even trust Mike Sullivan to make that fix right now? I'm not really sure. You know, I said it earlier on the podcast. I'm sick and tired of the same answers from every single loss like this or just loss in general. You know, he coached under John Torrella.

So, you know, at some point, you know, maybe he'll have that John Torrella kind of rant or just go on that Michelle Tarian rant that I talked about earlier on just because that rant basically sums up this game. As I said, it played for five to eight minutes. They stopped skating. they're the most like their goal is to be the worst defensive squad in the team in the league

excuse me and there was just there's no pushback there's no spirit there's no heart there's no loyalty there there was nothing i saw tonight that even resembled anything of that this was the polar opposite of penguins hockey and i was just i was really disappointed by it this effort tonight because you know especially look like they were going to blast the flyers into oblivion those first five minutes send a message to them and the rest of the league saying hey you know, the Penguins might be back here. But note, they just go back to their same old inconsistent ways. I still cannot get a read on this team,

and I don't think I'm going to get a read on this team for the rest of the season. You know, circle this game, everyone, because if the Penguins miss the playoffs and there's a very real possibility that that happens, this might be the game that costs them their playoff or that they miss it by one to two points. You know, the Flyers still have a couple of games in hand on them right now. And yeah, you know, if they take care of business against Buffalo, New Jersey, take away most of those points. Yeah, they should be able to make the playoffs

But do we even trust that the penguins are going to do that right now I mean, I know I was earlier on in the week and early on last week But right now after this performance, I don't know And also just, you know, just any given night, anything can happen. So we'll have to see what happens. But yeah, everyone, I just, I don't think there's much else to say about this performance before I get to the takeaway segment. I'm going to kind of like do a little bit something different going forward with the

listener takeaways. I'll just bring the listeners into the show doing some other stuff. But tonight I do want to get your takeaways and talk about that. And yes, you know, Evan Rodriguez should be a help to the fourth line. He bumps out Anthony Angelo. I would expect him to be back next game. Brian Dumlin is getting much closer. He was full contact. I expect him to get in the lineup for Mark Freeman. And then you just need to slide Matheson down or just take him out and put Chad Ruiedel win. I mean, is it really that bad to have a C.C. Ruiedel third pairing?

I really don't think so. Rubeel was one of their best defensemen when he was playing this season. Mike Matheson is terrible in his own zone. He's not playing his actual good position. And, you know, it's just that Matheson-Marino pairing is costing them games. So, you know, I know I sound like a broken record. I apologize on that. But it's just really frustrating to watch them do the same things game after game after game,

and they're just not being consistent enough. But, okay, before we do get to the next segment, excuse me, It's time to talk about rockado.com. It's a family business serving auto podcast customers online for 20 years. You've got to rockado.com for shop for auto and body parts for hundreds of manufacturers. The catalog is unique and remarkably easy to navigate. You can quickly see all the parts available for your vehicle and choose the brand specifications of prices you prefer. Best of all prices at the website are always low and the same professionals and do it yourselfers.

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The Locked On Penguins podcast I'm your host, Hunter Hoagery. Remember to follow me on Twitter at Hunter Hoey's All the show is Twitter at L-O-Ur underscore Penguins. I also apologize everyone if I've sounded a bit heated tonight. I normally just don't get heated after these kind of losses Maybe a little bit of the fan in me

is coming out. I try to be objective as possible. I call it how it is. I try not to be like biased. You know, I don't try to be a homer or something like that. Like I used to be back in the day. And you all know what you're going to get when you listen to this podcast.

I'm a straight shooter. If the team is sucking, I'm going to tell you that they suck. If they're playing good, I'm going to tell you that they're playing good. And if they're sucking, I'm going to tell you why they're sucking. So I just wanted to throw that out there. You know, maybe that helps. Maybe it doesn't. But let's get to the listener takeaways if you hear.

Alan Tioter. 10 minutes were great, 50 minutes were pathetic. Being in the arena after Phillies timeout, they didn't look like they wanted to win. Can't believe I sat through that. Also, Flyers fans were the worst, have to do better on Saturday. Yeah, I am so sorry that you had to sit through that for 50 minutes.

I know you're at the game on Tuesday. That was great. But yeah, I can't imagine having to sit through that. I honestly probably would have just been cussing out my ass. Walking out the arena. Fiona says it's like they had an ice coffee and then had an extreme caffeine rush that just went right to them.

Honestly, that's a great comparison. She also says, but luckily a lot of the injured players are getting better. What that has happened with the Patrick situation? If he takes four runs at a guy in two games, how is he not suspended? Yeah, I mean, the Nolan Patrick thing, I don't know if he's going to get suspended for that. He probably won't. I don't know if he should either. The first shot probably should have been a five-minute major.

I don't know if I would have given them misconduct. But that was not a two-minute boring. That's just, that's Tim Peel officiating right there, everyone. I mean, that's just how he calls games. I understand why people are going to be upset about that. It was a trash hit. I know if he even got knocked out of the game after that. But he also kind of took a run at Patrick.

I'm not really going to blame Patrick for that second one. But the first one, yeah, that was a garbage cross check. That's everything that the league needs to get out of the game. Maybe he'll get a fine for it, but who knows. But yeah, it was basically an iced coffee, and then they had an extreme caffeine rush, and they didn't know what the hell to do with themselves. Alex Stevens says, bad play all round after a good start.

Matheson had an awful game. The power play is officially back to being a momentum killer too. Yeah, I agree with you. You know, it was early on in the third period. I didn't even get to touch on that in this episode. They had the power play 3-2. Big, big stretch right there. You can make it 4-2.

Nope. They don't even get really a shot attempt on it and flutters out, and the flyers ended up tying the game was like six minutes left. So it's like, you know, you have an ample good time to potentially take some momentum from the flyers and they couldn't even do that. So that was just really disappointing to see the power play is a joke. The P.K. is still a joke. and yeah, Matheson, like you said, he was truly terrible.

Mr. Noodle says, great start, then a complete embarrassment by the defense, any pressure on them, and they coughed it up. Phantom High Stick penalty. Yes, I do remember that. It didn't even touch him. Again, back to Tim Peel officiating, they always like to turn these games. It looks like they're going to be blowouts and make them interesting. I know the Penguins stopped skating, but, you know, I guess maybe that was a turning point a little bit,

but still, those just those calls stink. He also says the PK, no puck pressure, and a goal, thanks, ref. 87 and 71 lines would rather try a fancy pass than shoot. The power play was junk. Yeah, I didn't really notice Sidney Crosby that much done. Obviously, he had that great first opening shift, which set the tone for the first five minutes. But after that, those last 50, 55 minutes,

they did not really generate a lot of scoring chances on that. Like you said, the PK was a disgrace. The defense stunk. I'm glad you guys are seeing what I'm seeing, to be honest. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing stuff that makes me insane, but I'm glad you guys just backed me up on it. A few more here. Gilbert the goat says, pathetic, embarrassing, disgusting, all the above. Such a great star which ended up in complete disaster.

Crosby has not been playing good recently, in my opinion. Ronnie Hextal needs to start making some moves for a top six forward. Yeah, I mean, I'm hoping so at some point, you know, I don't know if he's going to make a trade just yet. He's a lot more patient with his teams, but I do think as the deadline gets closer, he is going to make a move or two. Hopefully they do get that top six forward. He also says Malky needs to put that last chance away. Big game on Saturday.

Yeah. Gino, he's got a, that was a great say by Elliot. He usually scores on that probably eight or nine out of ten times, but yeah, they score there, and the game is over, and I agree. There's a big game coming on Saturday. They have to take two points there. King Clarkie, in his usual tone, for the love of all that is holy, please make Matheson a winger. Yes, I'm just ready for him to be a winger at this point.

Please stop him having to play defense in his own zone. And finally, fridaym couldn't agree more. Forget the three-nothing lead team relapsed to the same old poor defensive cover. and sloppy play, but hey, Jari was still solid, rest was garbage and they should be embarrassed. Yeah, I mean, the team should be embarrassed. Tristan Jari, again, I feel terrible for him. He was awesome the entire game,

and he had to make way too many 10 bell saves than he should have. So, yeah, I think that wraps up this episode of the Locked on Penguins podcast. I know it wasn't kind, but this episode was never going to be kind, especially with the effort that they put up for the last 50 minutes of this game. But I'll be back tomorrow with another episode of the podcast. Maybe I'll try to get a guess, or try to get you guys incorporated into the show in different areas. But I appreciate you all listening to this one,

and I will talk to you all on Friday.